I happened to catch some highlights of the first test between Pakistan and West Indies and I am glad I watched it. Brian Lara is so good! His elegance, his range of shots, his power, his grace … everything … makes me think that forget Sachin, forget Dravid, Lara is the best batsman in the world today.
4 centuries in 5 innings. Unbelievable. He has just surpassed Bradman and has 30 centuries. What was suppposed to be almost unachievable when Gavaskar retired, is now under threat from two guys - the 34 test century-mark.
I hope to see Lara in full flow sometime in my life.
What a match it was. I didn’t know Puerta but that guy was playing really well. Nadal was just a little bit more consistent and less nervy. Puerta broke Nadal a couple of times in the 4th set but immediately lost his serve in the next game. The essence in tennis I think is to hold serve at least right after breaking the opponent’s serve, because it psychologically can kill the opponent. But Puerta was not able to.
But he was tired - he had played long matches in the past two rounds and was just not able to continue playing 110% every point against a guy who was hitting at the same level throughout the match.
In any case, good match. Loved to watch excellent tennis.
Rafael Nadal and Mariano Puerta at the French Open - picture from FrenchOpen.org.
Justine Henin has won a Grand Slam coming back from injury. She has lost only one match since she came back from injury where she was out for (almost or over?) a year!
Congratulations, and welcome back!
Henin Hardine with the easy win - picture from FrenchOpen.org.
Location, location, location – no wonder the producers of the new ABC reality television series The Scholar have chosen USC as their show’s setting. The Scholar is a program that celebrates higher education by giving underprivileged high school students a chance to compete for an all-expense-paid education at a top American university of their choice (provided they’ve been admitted). Tune in to Channel 7 on Monday, June 6 at 8 p.m. PST as ten teenagers are quizzed on subjects such as history and literature, and also asked to solve brain teasers.
The judges include an admissions officer from U.C. Berkeley and two others from Ivy League schools. According to the former Columbia admissions officer who thought up the show, it’s about “demystifying the college-admission process.” There should also be plenty of drama, what with ten teenagers competing for the top prize.
Here’s one brain teaser from the first episode:
There is a panel with three switches on one side, three light bulbs on the other. The students can flick the switches as often as they wish, but can only venture to the bulb side of the panel once. How can they figure out which switch controls which bulb?
To find out the solution, and pay a visit to your favorite spots on campus, don’t forget to watch Monday night.
Wow. West Indies won a test against Pakistan? Pakistan is pretty strong nowadays - in terms of balance and commitment. But West Indies were able to master them. Quite nice.
I loved it.
Of course, Pakistan did not have Inzy playing. And looks like there is some talk of problems in the dressing room. These problems were not there on their trip to India and for a change, the Paki team looked formidable because everyone was playing for the team and there were no ego issues (Akhtar was not there). But looks like old habits die hard and once again politics is coming to the fore and the team is losing it.
I am just happy that West Indies is going well. They were a sorry picture for past many years and to see them punching hard is a welcome sign. Will make the members of the ‘invincibles’ happy to see that.
While I was in Boston, the Red Sox were in New York playing the Yankees.
And it was unbelievable - we walked into the Cheers bar and saw the score on the TV’s there - 16-0 or something!! My cousin, a die hard Yankee fan, lost his appetite almost immediately.
Anyway, the next game was also a big loss for the Yankees and the fans are now furious!
(this post completed after series was over, hence the mismatch between post date and ‘results’) So San Antonio has taken care of the Phoenix Suns. It was truly a clinical performance from the Spurs.
Phoenix was not giving up easy, mind you. The scores may suggest that it was easy for SA, but having watched most of all the games of this series, I know that it was not as easy as it seemed. Phoenix are dangerous, young and raring. They have capability to put together huge runs.
But I think they were beaten by a truly superior team. Now the Spurs have a week or so to rest up before the finals begin.
Who is it going to be against, though? Detroit and Miami are both good, and like I had mentioned, I think this one is ready to go to 7 games! :-)
Unfortunately, due to some technical error on our DVR, I could not watch the European GP. The DVR apparently deleted that recording.
But from what I read, it was a nightmare for Kimi - to lose his tire on the last lap! Unbelievable. I feel sad, especially because Alonso got the 10 points. Instead of getting +4 in the points, Kimi ended up with -10. Now, it is truly an uphill climb, and Alonso can win it all by just going about his business.
Meanwhile, Ferrari had some consolation with Rubinho coming in 3rd. Michael will start thinking about what’s next for him. I picked up the F1 Racing magazine on the newstands at the airport on the way back from NJ, and read that he may have to go to Red Bull Racing, which will switch to Ferrari engines.
Let’s see what happens, and how motivated he is. I am sure he will come back next year, but what about the year after next, when his contract is due to expire.
Safin lost a long match (and from what I understand, he lost some of his temper too!), but Davydenko still remains in the draw.
Kuznetsova lost to Henin and then, the biggest surprise was Henin beating Sharapova in staright sets!
And Federer still remains in the draw. Not going to jinx him here.
But what about Henin - to beat Svetlana and Sharapova back-to-back is awesome, especially given that she was not 100% fit in the first match. Also, she was down 5-3 in the third set in that match and came back big time. I love watching her play because she is one of the few players (among men and women both) who has a single-handed backhand. It is nice to see that one-handed backhand rip cross court or down the line. She’s definitely back, even if she does not win it all.
Felt sorry for Clijsters and then for Davenport. But Mary Pierce is running some sort of a streak of her own here.
Though I saw some of it, and kept up with some other stuff, it was still a lot of stuff that happened. There will be individual posts for most of the sports, but let’s see:
We were fortunate, really fortunate, to have decent weather throughout the weekend. Made the entire trip really worth it.
Boston is useless if you cannot walk around in the city and if it were raining or cold, it would have made us stay indoors and that would have been pathetic.
Also, Cape Cod and the drive there and back is beautiful if the sun is shining bright and the weather is warm. Which is exactly what the weather was like and we all loved it.
And the one time it did rain a bit, it was in the late evening when we were already home. The next morning, it cleared up again.
Thank you mother nature. You gave us the perfect weather for our trip.
Wow, it is such a blast to meet school friends after such a long time. I met one very close friend after about 5 years, and another one after 15 years or so! Both are doing well for themselves, which as usual, continues to amaze me.
The first one came to the US as a ‘java programmer’ but his first love was DJ-ing and did well as a DJ in the NY/NJ area. He just got married and has started his own business, which I hope does well.
The second friend actually came to the US with his family when his father got a family-based green card. They have a few restaurants in the NJ area and he even started a night club/hookah bar. The restaurants we saw, were doing great business. The night club we did not see, but I have heard it is not doing that well. But he is trying hard.
There was so much discussed at the dinner table - all the notorious stuff we did as kids, all came out in front of the wife and my two cousins.
Wow, I really did not think she would last the entire Indy 500. And #4 is fantastic.
Hopefully this is going to generate more interst in the open wheel racing family, which included Formula 1, coming up soon in North America, with the Canadian and US grand prixes.
I saw the Sportscenter with Danica’s interview and she seems quite a balanced driver, who knows what she is talking about and can win in the future.
Ganguly got the nod ahead of VVS and Australian Chris Rogers. Hope that the stint helps him come back. I don’t want him dumped. He is a good leader and the pressure on him created by one section of the media is causing more trouble than it is.
I have tried hard since we moved, to organize the mess that usually happens with all the cables and connectors. But the mess still remains. Big time. It is somewhat hidden, but it is still a mess. Like if I have to unplug something and plug something else back, there is no way it is 1-2-3. There is so much crap under the table, it is terrible.
I missed why they had such (relatively) obscure songs. Also, maybe it was our reception, but I just could not hear Bo sing. I could hear the music louder than his vocals.
Leads me to my conspiracy theory - it was fixed to make Carrie win. Her performances were flawless and especially the third song…like Simon said, she may have done enough to win it all.
I on the other hand feel that Bo was made to give it up. His life is set anyway. Not much to lose.
Another thing that fits with my theory - someone on the radio pointed out that the American Idol CD has Carrie’s song listed first, followed by Bo, and then Vonzel, etc. Is there something we don’t know that the Fox execs do??
Wow. Did not see that coming. I really thought yesterday’s game would be Suns'. But the Spurs proved that they are championship material by yet again showing up big time in the 4th quarter.
Not going to jinx anything at the moment by saying anything, but one thing is certain - I don’t want either of these teams to lose. As usual, the Western Conference Finals is my NBA finals. Just different teams this time.
Whoa! Second win in a row! Kimi is proving that the McLaren is now stable enough to keep winning. Third pole in a row and second P1 in a row. That was enough to put him in second spot in the drivers' championship rankings, still well short of Alonso, who keeps getting podiums finishes.
But I am very very happy for my man Kimi. He has finally got a car that he can drive for an entire race weekend, and he proves that given a good car, he can be one of the best drivers on the grid.
Meanwhile, the bad luck spiral continues to spiral inwards for Ferrari. Because of their bad finish in the previous race, they started badly in qualifying and because of a not-so-good qualifying they start at a bad position in the grid and with F-1 tracks not pass-friendly, it was almost impossible for Michael to make ground. The only chance he had was during the safety car laps, but unfortunately, he had to pit because of the run-in with DC, and coming out of pit, he was stuck in a bad position.
Where does Ferrari go from here? Championship defense is ruled out. Renault is way ahead. Ferrari can only fight for pride. The new car was supposed to have solved all the problems, but the tires have created more problems than the problems that the new car supposedly solved. Bridgestone is clueless. Ferrari has to really tighten the screws on Bridgestone so that they can come up with an answer to the new regulations and perform consistently.
The new qualifying format has been scrapped. Looks like no one liked it because all the teams unanimously accepted the change. So qualifying will now be only on Saturdays. Let’s see if that helps Ferrari at all.
Meanwhile, there is a third contender in the race now. McLaren is back. Not that I like it much, as a team, but Kimi doing well is absolutely welcome!
Over the weekend, I had yet another hard drive crash! Its the fifth or sixth in as many years that I have seen. What’s up with the technology today? Can’t survive a year without a hard drive crash?
Begs a big question - how do we ‘backup’ our stuff so that we can just plug in a new drive and get going as if nothing happened?
Drives don’t cost much…less than $1/GB. But the plugging in part is easier said than done. I think there is software like Norton Ghost which will let me take an ‘image’ of the computer and let me restore to a new hard drive as if nothing changed, but I have never tried to restore from ghost. Also, I don’t know how often I can take an ‘image’ of the entire hard drive and how much space that will take.
One way or the other, the bloody technology issues just never go away. How come we take it for granted that there is going to be a failure?
It is a very nice film. Amitabh has acted superbly. That guy really knows how to emote. Every small facial expression he makes, sends a message out to the audience.
The number of characters were kept to a minimum, and the concept was kept simple. So it was easy to keep a track of the plot, and in turn, enjoy the film.
And as a side note - this is the first film I have seen of Priyanka Chopra. Is she hot or what?
Went to the Mountain View art and wine festival on Sunday. Was fun. Hot as hell, but still, fun. For me, it is all about having the fresh squeezed lemonade, and the superb strawberry shortcake! :-)
Loved them both. In fact, we tried two different lemonades. Both were awesome.
The arts on the other hand, I was not too sure - its the same stuff, usually, year after year. We still go to the Mountain View festival almost every year, and enjoy it. It is usually the first one out the gate at the beginning of summer, and it is more enjoyable that way.
